Termites undermine Singapore nuns

Published: 26 February 2007

Nuns from a Singapore contemplative Carmelite community will leave
their monastery together for the first time since World War II after
termites undermined their convent threatening the roof with collapse.

The Singapore News
reports that Carmelite Sisters will leave the confines of their hilltop
monastery en masse for only the second time in 69 years since it was
established along Bukit Teresa Road in 1938.

For many of the 15
nuns - most of them in their 50s and above - it will be their first
view of modern Singapore as they make the 20-km trip next month to the
Punggol Major Seminary, where they will live for the next six months
while pest exterminators swing into action and repairs are carried out
to the monastery.

World War II caused the first disruption to
the sisters' life who were forced to take refuge after their monastery
was converted to an anti-aircraft base by the British and later
occupied by the Japanese.

After the War, the nuns found the
monastery looted and dilapidated. But they made it habitable again and
eventually added three new wings and the chapel.

An enclosed
order, Carmelite nuns do not, as a rule, leave the monastery from the
time they take their vows as young women. In February 1984, a
columbarium was built inside the monastery. Since then, 11 sisters have
died in the monastery. Their remains - along with those nuns who died
earlier - are interred in the columbarium.

A self-contained
community, the nuns make religious items for the Catholic Church to
raise funds to help pay for their daily needs. But most of their days
are spent in prayer. The doors of the monastery are open to all who
seek spiritual comfort, and a regular stream of visitors, including
non-Catholics, turn up daily to pour out their worries to the nuns.

The
nuns do keep up to date with current events via a TV set in the
monastery, which is regularly turned on for news and other programs
deemed relevant by the Mother Superior, the head of the monastery.